Smithsonian

When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

Sister and brother, circa 1905, wear traditional white dresses in lengths appropriate to their ages. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers, white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my babies in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” says Paoletti.

University of Maryland Costume and Textile Collection

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